Wall paneling, for example, for elevator interiors and other rooms requiring wall paneling are generally custom-installed systems requiring a skilled installation crew. Recent developments have been made in unassembled wall panel systems that can be delivered and installed by general contractors without requiring training in custom installation.
For example, one unassembled wall panel system incorporates a tongue and groove system for an interlocking assembly, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,089,708, issued on Aug. 14, 2006, and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0254171 A1, published on Nov. 16, 2006, both assigned to Bostock Company, Inc, the disclosures of which are hereby expressly incorporated by reference. In that regard, the panels are manufactured with a tongue extending from one end of the panel to engage with a groove in an adjacent panel. One disadvantage of this system is that the tongues on the panels are susceptible to breakage during installation and in transit.
Another unassembled wall panel system incorporates a “French cleat system.” The French cleat system uses extruded wall cleats that are mateable with correspondingly-shaped wall panel cleats. To assembly the system, the wall cleats are first secured to the wall in precise locations, and the wall panels are thereafter mated with the wall cleats by carefully aligning the wall panel cleats with the wall cleats. This process is extremely time consuming and cumbersome.
Therefore, there exists a need for an improved wall panel system that does not require custom installation, that is less susceptible to breakage, and that is easy to install.